Board Receives Update On Year-Round Schools
April 15, 2008 - A proposal to obtain consent from parents who have students assigned to year-round and modified calendar schools will be presented to the Board of Education at its meeting Tuesday, Assistant Superintendent Chuck Dulaney told the board at its facility committee meeting today.Dulaney told the board a proposal will outline steps that need to be taken to comply with Wake Superior Court Judge Howard Manning’s ruling last year that parents must give consent for students to be assigned to year-round and modified calendar schools. The school system has appealed the ruling to the NC Court of Appeals and an expedited court ruling had been expected by now. Rulings are usually delivered by the court on Tuesdays and court watchers found no ruling handed down by the judges again today.
Impact of Year-round school
In the facilities committee meeting, Dulaney explained the impact of year-round schools in providing appropriate teaching spaces.
In adopting the CIP 2006 school construction program, the Board of Education called for the conversion from traditional to year-round calendars of enough elementary schools to gain 3,000 seats to accommodate projected growth in 2007-08 and 2008-09. These schools will have the capacity to serve 3,720 more students in school year 2008-09, than they could serve on a traditional calendar.
The new large elementary schools being built as part of CIP2006 and opening on a year-round calendar are able to serve 255 more students when fully utilized than the same facility would serve on a traditional calendar. When fully assigned and using three mobile classrooms to maximize operations, the year-round school has the capacity for 1,124 students compared to 869 for the traditional calendar school.
In adopting the CIP 2006 school construction program, the Board of Education called for the conversion from traditional to year-round calendars of enough middle schools to gain 1,000 seats to accommodate projected growth in 2007-08 and 2008-09. These schools will have the capacity to serve 878 more students in school year 2008-09, than they could serve on a traditional calendar.
The new large middle schools being built as part of CIP 2006 and opening on a year-round calendar are able to serve 312 more students when fully utilized than the same facility would serve on a traditional calendar. When fully assigned and without mobile classrooms, the year-round school has the capacity for 1,623 students compared to 1,311 for the traditional calendar school.
Year-round saves millions in school construction
Dulaney said the year-round schools will provide a capacity gain of 7,000 elementary seats and 2,000 middle school seats, when compared to what they could have provided on a traditional calendar in 2008-09. The 7,000 elementary school seats are equivalent to building nine schools at a cost of $25 million or a total of $225 million. The 2,000 middle school seats are equivalent to building two schools at a cost of $48 million or a total of $96 million. Dulaney said the year-round capacity has provided a school construction savings of $321 million.
Another benefit from the school capacity and CIP 2006 program according to Dulaney is that it will allow his staff to recommend a multi-year assignment proposal. The WCPSS Growth and Planning staff is in the early stages of working on that proposal.
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